Top 3 Ways to Improve Your Work/Life Balance while Growing Your Business by:Victor Mataraso
If you are a small business owner, you have undoubtedly encountered the seemingly
difficult challenge of balancing your business obligations with those of home and family. Being committed to both a business and family life forces us to blur the lines sometimes. While trying to succeed in business and contribute to nurturing a family simultaneously is an ambitious goal, the frequent outcome is that we spread ourselves thin and wind up feeling as though we dont do anything well.If this sounds familiar to you, take heart that there are some simple strategies you can implement to restore some structure to your day and make yourself more effective in your sometimes seemingly conflicting roles. The tips that follow are designed to help you improve the balance without compromising growth.
1) Your business day and your work day can be different. Depending on your industry, there are certain expectations regarding when you are open for business. For many of us in service-based businesses, that is Monday-Friday from about 8:30am-5pm. If so, have someone available during those hours to answer your phone and attend to your location if you have on-site traffic. Doing so will inspire confidence in those looking to do business with you that you are in fact ready to do so. That does not mean that you must be personally available for every moment during those hours. Schedule your activities including phone calls and meetings at times that work for you. With the right people and tools in place, you can transact business during the business day, but produce the work at a time and place of your choosing.
2) Dont answer your phone, but make sure your phone is answered. While this may sound counterintuitive, in this age of mobile communications its easy to get sucked into the myth that you will be most productive if you respond to every call and e-mail the moment they arrive. The fact is thats simply not true. Being effective in all your roles requires some level of concentration and attention. Have you ever called a service provider and reached someone who is on a cell phone clearly engaged in another activity? While they may feel as though they are providing good service by answering your call, the reality is that the caller may feel as though they are an interruption and the information exchanged and follow-up may be lacking. Hire a receptionist to answer your business calls on a landline and schedule your activities to your preference. If you dont wish to hire an employee, there are off-site telephone reception companies that offer a highly personalized service in such a way your callers will feel they have reached your staff. Important calls can be screened, announced and connected to you in real-time if needed.
3) Automate the routine, personalize the exception. Someone much smarter than I coined that phrase, but it has the ability to transform your business dramatically. Generally, 80% of the interactions a client has with your business are fairly routine. By that I mean, the same questions get answered, the same forms are filled out, and the same process is followed. This is the way it should be and the only way a business can begin to generate any volume. The remaining 20% of interactions may require some exception to the rules requiring your personal involvement. If you design your systems well, the routine functions can be delegated. Whether you choose to employ someone on-site to handle these tasks or outsource them to a third party provider is a personal choice, but it frees you up to focus on the exceptions that require your expertise.
Balancing business and personal life in the modern age is a constant juggling act, but by putting some boundaries in place, utilizing available resources and delegating where appropriate, you can achieve more balance between work and lifestyle while growing your business simultaneously.
About the author
Victor Mataraso, M.B.A. is the founder and president of Reliable Receptionist, a company that provides off-site telephone reception and appointment scheduling services for companies with 1 to 100 employees. Located in the East San Francisco Bay Area city of Walnut Creek, CA, Reliable Receptionist provides an alternative for businesses that need something more than a telephone answering service, but dont wish to hire an additional employee. He can be reached at (925) 627-4200 or www.ReliableReceptionist.com. His blog is available at www.ReliableReceptionist.info. Ultimate Scaffolding Report by:Daniel Fincham Introduction to International Background Screening of Job Candidates by:Lester S Rosen Lloyds Banking Group Launches New Mortgage Scheme For First-Time Buyers Mortgage Advice by:Mark Aucamp Forex Trading Platforms And Forex by:Phil Jarvie Small Businesses Arent The Stimulus Answer by:Ronn Torossian LBC, The King of Delivery Service by:Timothy Gomez LBC Delivering Withing 24 Hours by:Timothy Gomez Letters In Safe Hands by:Timothy Gomez The Joy Of Opening A Balikbayan Box by:Timothy Gomez An Express Regalo From LBC by:Timothy Gomez AIR21, 2GO, And LBC by:Timothy Gomez Generate Endless Leads And Instant Cash For Your Biz by:Stuart Fripp Don't Let The Economy Beat You! by:Charles Amat